CPU use by POTCO on your computer

[Edward Edgemenace]

Originally Posted by OFxZeppers

CPU usage may vary from system to system, depending on configuration, cpu speed, hyperthreading, dual/quad processors, etc.

It may not be directly comparable in many situations/combinations.

I don't recall asking for a direct comparison. A direct comparison, would be that using this same computer to serve numerous databases over a wide area network, I never saw over 5% cpu use, no matter what table rebuilds were in progress. A direct comparison would be saying that playing other games, I never saw over 5% cpu use, until POTCO.

But that isn't the point of this poll. Rather, it is to estimate what percentage of people playing, suffer from the run-away key-reader thread, that causes permanent preemption of the garbage collector. So far, it looks like about 2/3rds of the respondents, do.

In that light, a more detailed investigation of configurations, speed, hyper-threading, dual/quad, etc., is entirely irrelevant. Which is what makes this a useful poll. An estimate of CPU use is entirely relevant, as it has been ignored for so very long. For POTCO, the relative use of a system's CPU resources is a nearly perfect indication of what barriers exist.

[Maya Kate]

low 50's seems to be the norm but never checked while in SvS since I'm usually a bit too busy. lol
New, low end, video card has helped with the lag tho as long as I remember to turn graphics to low and my antivirus to game mode. (ie. off) I only experienced lag during SvS and now that problem seems to be resolved. So when big D claims it's your video card they might just be right in this case.

[fantasyforever]

56-100% Well thats it with POTCO and mIRC. so yeah.

[Sven Niscadae]

If you're looking at the Performance tab when PotCO is running, I don't doubt you're seeing 100% utilization of the CPU. But how much of that is Pirates.exe? Look in the Processes tab instead and look for Pirates.exe. Mine goes between 50-75 which means it's using that percentage of the CPU. Sometimes it drops down to 30-40%.

Stat-wise I have a 2GHz single core processor, 1GB RAM, a fairly good video card (Radeon x850 256MB AGP). I have the graphical settings set all the way up and I'm interwebbing off of a USB wireless network adapter. My PC isn't too powerful by today's standards but I'm amazed I can run PotCO with the options all of the way up like I do. Any choppiness I get is purely from too many objects coming onto the screen at the same time.

Also, your poll may be a little more accurate if the options where more balanced and even as far as the ranges. 56-100% is a far more larger range than the other options and it doesn't reflect proportionately alongside the other options. Someone with 56% CPU utilization and someone with 99% would have different outcomes with their game. But I'm just nit picky.

[Dr. Zeppers]

Asking for everyones amount of CPU utilization is obviously for a comparison towards each other, and towards the OP's curiousity.

I have no problems with CPU utilization and POTCO on 4 separate machines.

Originally Posted by Edward Edgemenace

But that isn't the point of this poll. Rather, it is to estimate what percentage of people playing, suffer from the run-away key-reader thread, that causes permanent preemption of the garbage collector. So far, it looks like about 2/3rds of the respondents, do.

If thats true then it would have been better to ask if anyone is having any issues with CPU utilization, not for the percentage of it. As percentage of CPU usage will vary, and taken alone, without knowing the source, the equipment/configuration behind it makes this piece of information alone insignificant in trying to track down any such utilitization issues.

Originally Posted by Edward Edgemenace

An estimate of CPU use is entirely relevant, as it has been ignored for so very long. For POTCO, the relative use of a system's CPU resources is a nearly perfect indication of what barriers exist.

This is not an estimate of the games CPU usage however. It is a combination of various cpus/machines, and thier individual cpu usage. Using the information from each pollster "IS" comparing this information against your own, and the others that have posted. You have already compared some and have decided that 2/3rds the respondants have issues with CPU usage without knowing anything about thier systems. They could be MACs for example, they could be slow underpowered pcs, lacking in ram, there are many many factors that contribute to the outcome here. Even videocards, can change this measurement from system to system as some burden the cpu with work, some not so much. A hyperthreaded system, will reflect a CPU as two cpus in the system, as they operate similarly to a dual CPU system. In this case 50% means that one of these 'virtual' cpus is pegged at 100% utilization.

Any accurate experiment or collection of data requires checks and balances.
Why do you think that when all the various industry performance testing, etc that is done on systems includes all the details of the machines these tests are run on? It certainly IS relevant. Its like asking everyone what color the sky is, while not bothering to check who is wearing colored sunglasses when they look/answer.

IMO, it is useful to find out who is having CPU utilization issues, and perhaps thier hardware configurations to help learn more about what issues may be going on in this regard.

Note: I have lots of games, have played lots of games, and none actually have as low a utilization as 5%, even on my dual processor systems, I have even ran numerous games that PEG the cpu utilization 100% for the entire time the game is running (without any deterimental effects in the game.. ie lag). It is not uncommon for games to do this as some take/reserve what they need so they will have the power available when it needs it and not have to 'take it' from some other process, or wait for the process to release the resource for the games usage.

[Edward Edgemenace]

Good points Sven. I know that I allow nothing else running here, when in POTCO, but others may not see the same thing. My bad assumption is that everyone responding to this poll is clever enough to turn off everything else their computer has running, when playing POTCO. I admit that 56-100 is too restrictive a range - my assumption was that anyone having over 50% use, does not have hyperthreading, but does have a serious CPU utilization issue...narrowing that down into more logical "chunks" wouldn't help that grouping.

OfxZeppers, again, that wasn't the purpose of this poll. This was to estimate how many people, like me, are affected by the run-away key-reader thread causing permanent preemption of the garbage collector. Why? Well, I'm trying to figure out the rhyme and reason of the dinghy loading screen glitch. My theory about that, remains that the ship's captain's computer has run out of memory (because of the garcol being precluded.)

Indeed, now the survey results show an even greater proportion of the respondents apparently affected by the memory leak (caused by the permanent preemption of the garcol.) Not surprising to me, that matches the approximate frequency that I get the loading screen glitch, when boarding someone else's boat from a dinghy.

The one surprise I have latched onto, from the responses here, is that the run-away may be limited to laptop configurations.

Anyhow,

A follow-up poll of those affected by the over-cpu utilization problem, would be a first-step investigation towards solving the coding error that causes the cpu run-away. But that doesn't help this poll, which simply is trying to estimate the magnitude of the problem. I.e., what percentage of pirates are affected, vs. what percentage of pirates' computers run cleanly.

[Dr. Zeppers]

My apologies, didnt mean to give any cause for arguement.

In trying to understand the request for CPU utilization, I was taking this as the purpose for the inquiry.

I have had various issues with loading screens at various times. I assumed that this was as situation where the 'pipeline' of data has been interrupted, and takes some time for the systems to reestablish. This in itself could cause CPU utilization to stutter as its on hold waiting for incoming data/responses. In some cases the 'pipeline' gets completely broken causing us to exit/relog the game when 'stuck' at the loading screen. The reason I made this conclusion is that it is not consistent. Application born issues of this kind usually in my experience repeat themselves each and every time the process is performed, not intermittently as it seems the issues with loading screens tends to be. A set of instructions in software code tend to repeat themselves each and everytime the procedure/set of instuctions is called, and perform the same functions each and every time they are called. The factor that is not under control of the application/code is the pipeline, ie connection to the data being served back and forth. Although the applications code itself has no actual control over this factor, it can be better written to handle such problems trying to smooth them out when they do occur, or at least trap the error and notify the end user as to what has happened (instead of leaving us in the loading screen forever).
I would have to say that if there is any flaw in the coding of the game, it is in its error trapping/handling often stuck in a loop that leaves us frustrated, and looking for CTRL-ALT-DEL.

[Edward Edgemenace]

Sorry if it seemed like a "hidden agenda" or something. Assessing the magnitude of the primary symptom (CPU being overburdened) was my primary intent.

Aye. No matter how many warts, it is still a great game. Great to have learned the loading screen work-around (use RETURN to port of call by putting a piece of tape on the edge of the screen to find where to click it.)

[Maximvs]

So just for FYI - heres my specs and what the usage is:

Specs:
3.0 Dual Core CPU
1 GB Memory (1046596)
3 GB Page File

Usage:

- Running Pirates just after startup:
- CPU 53%
(Core 1 100 %, Core 2 2-3%)
- Memory 500 MB (504000)
- PF 363 MB

- Running Two Pirates at once after startup:
- CPU 58%
(Core 1 100% Core 2 8%)
- Memory 755 MB (755008)
- PF 642 MB

- Running Two Pirates With Internet Explorer open (to post this)
... here is where I found the most changes - the browser used the 2nd Core while the two games running basically chared the first Core...

CPU - 58-90%
(Core 1 100%, Core 2 4-40%)
Memory 760 MB (761050)
PF 740 MB

---

So it appears that Pirates would continue to use Core 1, even when running more than one occurance - never using Core 2 (no surprise, and would explain the major decrease in performance as more accounts were activated on one comp). The browser meanwhile was happy to use Core 2 once it was started (as with many applications, they are not usually designed to take advantage of more than one core, which is why I believe Pirates never did touch Core 2 - ony 'Windows' and 'Windows Programs' like Explorer did).

[Edward Edgemenace]

Originally Posted by Maximvs

- Running Two Pirates at once after startup:

I've found my computer's main memory to be the limiting factor for that. But to make video capture smoother, I thought you had to override the single-threadedness. To do this, when not in full screen mode, I right-click the task bar (if in full-screen mode, use CTRL-ALT-DEL,) then open task manager to the "Processes" tab. I right-click pirates.exe and set the affinity. I get no new problems from doing so; usually I forget, or don't bother, if I don't have anything else (i.e. this web page) open.

[Maximvs]

Originally Posted by Edward

But to make video capture smoother, I thought you had to override the single-threadedness.

Nope - or I never had an issue with it anyway... then again when doing Vid Captures I'm only running the game at 800x600 and the Video Card is handling most of that work I think

I'll have to try the Affinity... could you imaging having a Home PC with 31 CPU's? LOL

[MacIronhawk]

After about 30 minutes it shows me that the CPU is going between 33% and 45%.

I would think that if you wanted to run POTCO flawlessly then you would want a great graphics driver and 4-6GB.(8GB if your computer can hold it. Mine will only hold 6GB.)

P.S. Are there computers that can hold 40GB? A while ago someone told me their computer had 40GB and I couldn't believe it. My vista can only hold up to 6GB.(from what they tell me.)

[Edward Edgemenace]

Originally Posted by MacIronhawk

P.S. Are there computers that can hold 40GB? A while ago someone told me their computer had 40GB and I couldn't believe it. My vista can only hold up to 6GB.(from what they tell me.)

No. The person you were talking to has a tiny 40GB hard drive.

[Edward Edgemenace]

I think I'll restart this poll after the update that is currently in test, hits the live/open servers. I'll definitely take the suggestion above, of making the increments uniform (1-20, 21-40, 41-60, 61-80, 81-100%) to ensure it isn't skewed. But I suspect it will still show 60%+, being affected by a runaway thread.

[akamystic]

As soon as I get into the game, my CPU usage spikes and the secondary fan comes on to help keep it cool. What's the ultimate answer...? A newer model PC with a quad core CPU, 4 GIG of RAM and at least a 512 MEG PCI Express video card. That will help with the lag and your CPU taking such a beating. You still can't control what's going on with the servers on the Disney side but at least you know you're covered.

Adding RAM and a better video card will help an existing system. My second PC is only an AMD 2600 with 1.5 GIG of RAM and a 256 MEG NVIDIA video card. Yes it gets choppy from time to time, but the graphics are clean and the game plays rather well.


Robert Darkskull
Pistols N Bladez